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Jesus, when the hell did skins start costing more than the damn game itself? It amazes me that they charge for this shit instead of getting the player to unlock those rewards. Unfortunately, they're doing it again like they did with Gears 3 because people are stupid enough to pay for that crap!

In case you didn't realize this was made solely to cash in on the IP and microtransact the hell out of idiots. As you point out, $50 in skins is absurd.

So over the last week or so the file encryption on the PS2 classics emulator has been completely reverse-engineered. You can now switch the ISO of any PS2 classic with that of any other PS2 game if you have a PS3 with CFW. Compatibility should be pretty high.

You’ll be able to play offline, with up to four players on the same console.

“It’s so much fun,” Joshua Mosqueira, the game's lead designer, said when I asked how the couch co-op played. “On a big couch, with four of your friends, drinking beers, it’s almost like a party atmosphere. There’s this really awesome social moment with a legendary drop, and everyone is cheering. It feels very collaborative.”

There was some question about the offline play of the game, something that’s impossible in the PC version of Diablo 3. It was confirmed to me that the game will be playable offline on the PlayStation 3.

Which leads to some other changes, namely the removal of the real money auction house. “The ecosystems on the PC and console are very different,” Mosqueira explained. “There were some technical reasons we had to go with offline, but again once you have an offline experience, even if we wanted to bring in the auction house, it just becomes problematic. How do you validate? How do you make sure there is no duping or any of that stuff?”

Even though some things were lost, and there will be many Diablo players who consider those losses a good thing, the gains were worth it. “But we really felt that playing offline, and being able to move your console from the living room to your bedroom, which a lot of players do to play, is really important,” Mosqueira said.

I probably wont be getting a 3DS for this game, but this is quite possibly the best use of "3D" I have seen thus far. The game oozes personality as well. (Luigi nervously hums the music that is playing when it gets quiet in the game apparently , )

Speaking to GamesIndustry International at GDC this week, Gibeau commented, "That's not the reality; I was involved in all the meetings. DRM was never even brought up once. You don't build an MMO because you're thinking of DRM - you're building a massively multiplayer experience, that's what you're building."

This is not an MMO. This is not an MMO. This is not an MMO.

"DRM is a failed dead-end strategy; it's not a viable strategy for the gaming business. So what we tried to do creatively is build an online service in the SimCity universe and that's what we sought to achieve. For the folks who have conspiracy theories about evil suits at EA forcing DRM down the throats of Maxis, that's not the case at all," he said with a laugh.

"DRM is a failed strategy. So we tried to come up with a different reason to force you online the entire time." That, too, is a failed strategy, jackass.

Gibeau acknowledged that EA probably should have done a better job in its messaging with the community, making sure that they understand the MMO nature of the title and the need to be always connected.

...and I guess the community could do a better job in its messaging that its not interested in the MMO nature and being always connected.

"Some customers have had problems, and you're in the media; you know how some things can snowball, and unfortunately that's what happened here. We did the best we could in order to respond to that and made adjustments to the service but the game is continuing to sell through at a much higher expectation than we thought. The servers are now at 100 percent and there's plenty of capacity...

No they're not. I still read about random rollbacks, inability to join regions, and there's no cheetah speed. Your servers are still not running properly.

Comment of the day form NeoGAF:

Don't piss in my ear and tell me pissing in ears is a failed dead end strategy, EA.

Game Informer has learned that Disney is closing its LucasArts game publishing subsidiary. We received an email from a LucasArts representative confirming the news.

The official statement from Disney (which recently acquired LucasFilm and LucasArts) reads as follows:

"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles."

Blizzard, Simcity, and others seem to have some big company coming. This generation brought us the "Nickle and dime" era. Now we are bringing in the "always online" era. These companies need to put drink vouchers and a condom in the box, so you are at least ready when they screw you.

Not to digress, but I'm bored. My friends list confirms that there is nothing that holds everyone's interest. I can recall lobbies with 18 people from my clan playing ground war in MW2. While it more than likely was during a weekend, you could still be assured that at least 2 or 3 would be playing 'the game' of the moment during a weekday and during popular sports games. Now, nothing.

Bioshock is nowhere to be seen, Blops2 stresses people out, there are more playing Happy Wars than all the CoD games put together atm. I've resorted to watching YouTube documentaries after trying (in this order) Blops2, MW3 and BF3 tonight. Even crushing the enemy team on a Metro CQ didn't get the juices flowing.

Not to digress, but I'm bored. My friends list confirms that there is nothing that holds everyone's interest. I can recall lobbies with 18 people from my clan playing ground war in MW2. While it more than likely was during a weekend, you could still be assured that at least 2 or 3 would be playing 'the game' of the moment during a weekday and during popular sports games. Now, nothing.

Bioshock is nowhere to be seen, Blops2 stresses people out, there are more playing Happy Wars than all the CoD games put together atm. I've resorted to watching YouTube documentaries after trying (in this order) Blops2, MW3 and BF3 tonight. Even crushing the enemy team on a Metro CQ didn't get the juices flowing.

I've been aware of this rumor for the past two months and decided against posting it here for the same reason I've stopped posting Pachter news – it struck me as link-bait posing as speculation/rumor. The PS4's somewhat nebulous confirmation that it won't have this feature undermined the rumor as well.

Is this solid evidence that the rumors are true? No. But the problem is someone who's linkedin lists him as a MS Games Creative Director playing, at worst, Devil's Advocate lends an air of official creedence to the rumors.

I recommend you guys skim the thread, particularly the first 10 pages (It blew up to 100 overnight!)

My last observation is everyone is confused by MSs silence in the wake of the early PS4 reveal, and if you had this type of negative feature on a console, I think delaying the reveal to limit negative PR time might be a worthwhile tactic.

I expect we'll be left hanging on this one, other than perhaps the guy losing his job for unthinkingly having such a conversation about a sensitive feature on an unconfirmed system so publicly on twitter.

My take? I'll may be looking into PS4 compatible XBOX style controllers in the future.

Side note: I'm still active this gen — just on the other side. I bought Bioshock Infinite for PS3, which came wi the original Bioshock. I had never played the first. I've been playing it, MLB: The Show (still one of the most addictive sports games), Journey (again), and a few other downloadable titles.

In keeping with my tradition, I'll be selling the 360 while I can still get a decent amount for it to make room for the nex gen, but PS4's apparent lack of BC means I'll be hanging on to e PS3.

Everyone, we're going to have a great time comparing Uncharted 4 trophies!

Doesn't strictly mean always on, just that network access is needed for something (some sort of activation like Windows Genuine Advantage). Signs are starting to point towards some sort of always on, though.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

And what's the big deal. Most people are always on anyways - how else are we going to play the next multiplayer game like Modern Warfare 4. The only problem I see is if your ISP has a service problem (like what happened with Rogers here in Canada when someone cut one of their major trunks) or you'd like to play offline for some reason (getting that HALO 4 achievement that has to be done at midnight).

P may also be correct in that the internet connection may be for activation of the game.

"We are aware of the comments made by an employee on Twitter. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views are not reflective of those of the company. We have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter."

The non-denial-denial. Pretty much their only option.

Edit: I don't take this as confirmation, but I've seen companies do the "We value the ability of all our customers to play our consoles in the present and the future" to refute it.

• 21st May event for November launch
• Just called 'Xbox'
• $500, $300 with some form of subscription
• $99 Xbox 360 (presumably a new 'slim' model).

I don't know what to make of this anymore. All signs point to this thing having a significant online component, but the wording fluctuates just enough to leave a possibility of being misconstrued. Will it require a connection a la SimCity, is it always on in that its always checking for updates and DLC to automatically download for you, or maybe it will just require the internet to "verify" games when you purchase them.

Maybe I'm misremembering rumors, or maybe I assumed MS would want to compete with Sony regarding price, but $500 is steep – its unchanged from last gen (or worse depending on your perspective).

Speaking of subscriptions, did you guys know that the $99 Xbox with two year subscription is at $14.99 a month?! One year is like paying three years of the standard gold $60 rate. That's ludicrous! Talk about ripping off the poor.

Wishful thinking is that MS may like this lowering of the goalposts. Imagine the outpouring of support if they reveal the next XBOX and all these online rumors are false. Certainly the move lacks business/economical logic – an online only console negates rural US and less developed countries. Does this make sense to reduce your legitimate market when it appears Sony has learned its lessons from this gen? Or is MS going for broke on the Only the US/English speaking countries/online countries buy our consoles anyway?

Interesting note: Many people are referring to this as the curse or Hubris of the third console. Nintendo rejected the CD and charged exorbitant licensing fees with the N64, Sony used the PS3 as a Blu-Ray trojan and deemed the console price worth getting a second job; Is MS overestimating it's strangle-hold on online with this possible only online strategy?

$500 is certainly steep for the rumored hardware. With that hardware, I would expect something like $300 without a payment plan/forced subscription for a bargain model with limited flash storage and no HDD.

If MS has hubris, they certainly don't have the cause for it that Nintendo and Sony had. MS is dead last in world installed base this generation, and it ended last generation dead last as well (although with a shorter console lifetime than the others). Sony was on top of the world with the PS2, and Nintendo had been printing money for a decade by the time the N64 was released.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

I don't expect $299, because that harkens back to PS2 days, but it's my hope (one that is undermined by the mandatory kinect rumors. PS4 has no chance of being this low). My expectation, based on no evidence, really, is $350 and $450 price points. Because I find the concept of similar prices to last gen laughable, they face increased pressure from Sony lowering their target price, and because all of the negative PR associated with the rumored features means you need to be competitive elsewhere.

Edit: Apparently the Core debuted at $299, but I consider that console so crippled it practically doesn't count. Anyone wanting to take advantage of HDMI or DLC would have had to buy an overpriced HD (likely twice) or new console within two years.

Your CEO doesn’t deploy his golden parachute due to lower than expected revenue because your games are doing well. EA is losing both the battle for gamers’ wallets as well as the battle for our hearts. They can say that they don’t mind being hated as long as we give them money, but fewer of us are giving them money. This is not the time for a victory lap.

The semifinal voting is now closed, and EA is up against BoA in the final.

That entire PA Report article is well worth a read (Kuchera's writing gets ever better over the years, btw). I think EA's problem is that they're losing ground, they know they're losing ground, and they can't figure out what to change. They look at their main competitor (Activision) and themselves at their peak (2007) and see corporations that - at least on the surface - work pretty much like EA does today. The only obvious difference is that their games don't sell. EA needs to figure out why those games don't sell instead of inventing more crazy monetization schemes of the few games that do sell.

Unfortunately, I don't think they'll do that. I think they'll try to buy some well-run studio to milk again. Any bets on who? My money is on Gearbox.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

I think Kuchera benefited from leaving ars. I have a feeling Penny Arcade basically gave him free reign to write the way he liked. HIlariously, I don't find too much use in the PA Report. It's style is basically a more professional and more worked on version of this thread – pick interesting new stories from sites and give your take on them. I'm a little disappointed because I also thought Kuchera's original reporting was good as well.